Poetic Justice

Sweet revenge, anyone? Here’s what Winona Ryder did when a kid called her “fag*ot” in high school

Stranger Things star Winona Ryder has revealed she was often called “faggot” for wearing “boy’s clothes” in school.

While attending Kenilwith Junior High in Petaluma, California, the actress was allegedly bullied for her short haircut and fashion choices.

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Nigel Goodall’s 1998 book Winona Ryder: The Biography includes a segment in which the actress remembers bullies calling her “a gay boy” because of her Salvation Army boy’s suit:

“As I went to the bathroom I heard people saying, ‘Hey, faggot.’ They slammed my head into a locker. I fell to the ground and they started to kick the shit out of me. I had to have stitches.”

But the school wouldn’t punish her attackers. In fact, they apparently wound up expelling Ryder instead.

“Years later, I went to a coffee shop and I ran into one of the girls who’d kicked me. And she said: ‘Winona, Winona, can I have your autograph?’ And I said: ‘Do you remember me? Remember in seventh grade you beat up that kid?’ And she said: ‘Kind of.’

I said: ‘That was me. Go f*ck yourself.’”

Now the story is going viral and gathering up thousands of likes and retweets on Twitter, as well it should.

All hail Winona.

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